Bob's Thought Catcher

First Day of Preschool

2009-02-04T07:51:00.002-05:00

Today is the first day of preschool for Seth. He will be going three days a week from now until the end of May. He is really excited about it.

Debbie met with the director of the school a couple of weeks ago to talk about registering Seth for the fall session. Then, on Monday of this week (yes two days ago), the director called to let us know that one of the kids in the 4 year old class was not going to be returning and that Seth could have that space if we wanted it. We had already decided that he was ready so we said "Why not?" An now he is in school. Just like that.

Happy Groundhog Day!

2009-02-02T12:24:00.002-05:00

Well, Phil saw his shadow, so it looks like six more weeks of winter. Let's see, Feb 2 to March 21 (vernal equinox) is about six weeks, more or less. Hmm, think that's a coincidence?

Ice and Snow

2009-01-28T20:07:00.002-05:00

We have finally had some respectable winter weather. About 2 inches of snow yesterday and a quarter inch of ice on top of that last night. Needless to say it was tricky out there this morning.

It's really easy for me to work at home, so I did that today. Working here is interesting because I can get a lot done. There aren't so many interruptions. I wouldn't want to do it for along time though because I feel like I would get out of touch with the people that I work with very quickly.

The other thing about working here is that the kids stop by every now and then to say hi and that's kind of nice. Hard to stay focused on work sometimes, but still nice.

Seth Seems to be a little better

2009-01-15T14:57:00.002-05:00

Seth's ear infection appears to be a little better. He is more energetic than he has been. I think the antibiotic is working.

Ear Infection

2009-01-12T09:23:00.004-05:00

Debbie just called and it seems that Seth has what looks like an ear infection in both ears. He's been moving kind of slowly for about a week so she took him to his doctor today. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin for 10 days.

He hasn't complained about sore ears or a sore throat. According to Debbie the doctor said he's a pretty tough cookie because both of his eardrums are red and appear to have fluid behind them. I hate to have him feel bad.

End of the First Week Back

2009-01-09T11:02:00.001-05:00

It's the end of the first week back to work and I am glad. For some reason this week has seemed busy.

Lego Truck

2009-01-04T15:54:00.003-05:00

Here is the final of the three Lego models from the kit. This one took about 2.5 hours to build.

Lego Loader

2009-01-02T17:37:00.004-05:00

A few nights ago I built the loader from the Lego kit I got for Christmas. Here are some photos. It has already been taken apart and Seth is asking about the truck cab which is the next project. This took about two and a half hours to build.

New Lamps

2009-01-02T17:35:00.004-05:00

After thirteen years of wedded bliss Debbie and I have finally found some living room lamps that we both like. At the right price. The JCPenney Clearance + Extra off + extra off price.

Whoo Hoo!

Week 2 of the Christmas Break

2008-12-29T17:36:00.002-05:00

Today was the first day of my second week off. I don't usually get this much of a holiday, but this year the calendar helped out and stretched this break out by adding an extra weekend. I will not go back to work until Monday the 5th.

It has been good to spend a significant amount of time with Debbie and the kids. I think we are all enjoying it.

Lego Car

2008-12-28T16:46:00.001-05:00

David gave me a Lego kit for Chirstmas. How cool is this!

I took about three hours to build last evening. There are also a couple of other models which I will build soon.

Thanks Dave!

Decorated for the season

2008-12-24T09:52:00.002-05:00

It's Christmas eve and Debbie thinks things are ready. She has checked everything off of her list. I am fairly happy with my outside decorations. Maybe next year we'll win a prize.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-20T15:02:00.002-05:00

Here is a picture of the wreath that I made.

All of the greens are from my back yard. Except the holly with berries which is from Mom and Dad's yard.

Google Chrome

2008-12-19T08:21:00.004-05:00

I've been trying out Google Chrome and so far I like it. It's fast. Also, I like the way Google has rethought the browser. It really feels like more of an application platform than an application unto itself. IE always feels overloaded and heavy to me. (and Firefox is getting a bit that way too). There are so many features in those browsers that I don't use.

Getting The Kids to Bed

2008-12-17T20:33:00.003-05:00

No matter what we do it seems to take about an hour to get the kids settled in bed. Sara does pretty well going to sleep still, but Seth takes much longer. He is up and down and trying every trick he can think of to stay up a little longer.

Tonight Sara got wound up like Seth does and Will used to do. It is the first time I've noticed that.

I took the day off

2008-12-12T17:16:00.001-05:00

I took the day off to do a little elf work today. Mom an Dad kept the kids while Debbie and I went out. We even had a lunch date!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-07T17:10:00.001-05:00

Happy Holidays from Seth and Grandpa! (I speak for both of them)

Heard While Decorating the Tree

2008-12-06T14:54:00.001-05:00

Bob - "Wow you guys, that tree is really getting loaded with stuff"
Seth - "Getting loaded is the best part"
Bob - "I totally agree"

Sunday Afternoon

2008-11-30T20:22:00.002-05:00

It was a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon. I didn't step outside all day. Not even to get the paper, Debbie did that.

We watched The Polar Express. Seth was totally absorbed. I think he enjoyed it, but didn't really get the message, which is not surprising because he's 4 ya know. He just thinks it's a movie about a pretty cool train.

If you haven't seen it, I would say it's worth a try if you're looking for something fun and Christmasy.

Reality Check

2008-11-25T13:30:00.003-05:00

Every now and then I get a little reality check. Today I realized that I graduated from high school before some of the people that I work with were born. I suppose I already knew that at some level, but today it actually came up in conversation.

Colds

2008-11-16T16:14:00.002-05:00

Well, I think Seth and I both have a cold. He got it first and and now I seem to have it. So far Debbie and Sara seem to be fine. Seth has a couple more days to go. I probably have the whole week.

"Treat a cold and you will be better in seven days. Leave a cold along and it will last a week."

The Kids at Hurricane Ridge

2008-11-13T20:08:00.001-05:00

Fixed a Flat

2008-11-10T19:31:00.002-05:00

When I got home tonight I found out that I had to fix a flat tire. A bike tire. Seth apparently ran over a thorn or something and punctured his back tire. Luckily I have a patch kit and bike tools handy. The tire is now holding air. The boy is back on the road.

Good Weekend

2008-11-10T11:24:00.002-05:00

I really enjoyed my birthday weekend. On Friday we took the kids to the Air and Space museum at Dulles. That was a lot of fun. Seth really enjoyed it. I did too.

Yesterday I felt like I had a nice, long day at home. It's so rare to have a weekend day that didn't fly by so fast that it was gone before it started. Yesterday really had a great pace. I felt like I had time to do everything that I wanted to do as well as what I needed to do.

Early Saturday

2008-11-01T07:29:00.001-05:00

Seth and I have been up since 6:30. He was ready for breakfast.

We had a good time trick-or-treating last evening. He just decided to count how many candies he got. I think he did pretty well.

Paid Off a Car Today

2008-10-18T12:24:00.004-05:00

I got notice today from the bank that we have paid off the Red Car. A lot of things have changed since 2004.

Here's a link to my original post about the car.
http://rmreinsel.blogspot.com/2004/10/2004-honda.html

UBUNTU

2008-10-17T20:07:00.001-05:00

I have gotten my PC back up and running with UBUNTU and I am really liking it so far.

Mobile blog

2008-04-08T08:40:00.001-05:00

Mobile blog

Getting Settled In

2007-11-02T19:19:00.000-05:00

I am getting settled in to the new job. So far it has been a good challenge and is interesting. Not only that, I really like having free coffee!

Commuting on metro is easy. It's nice not to have to deal with rush hour very much.

Home With the Kids

2007-10-29T18:57:00.000-05:00

Debbie went out for the evening with her friend Mary, so tonight I am home with the kids. They are both in bed now. They were really good. Sara was pretty tired so she fell asleep as soon as I put her in bed and Seth had his normal bedtime routine. All nice and easy.

Now I am playing with my Linux computer. Let's see if I can learn something.

Back in the Blogosphere

2007-10-21T19:56:00.000-05:00

Well, after a long absence I am back in the blogosphere. I've just completed setting up Ubuntu (Linux) on my laptop and so-far so good. One more step to a Windows free world.

The new job is coming along fine. I am busy, but good busy.

It seems like I just have random thoughts this evening.

Working Outside on the Screened Porch

2007-09-18T08:04:00.000-05:00

I am sitting on the screened porch this working on the continuing job search. I have a couple of good warm prospects, but I am still looking just in case those don't pan out. I have not really wanted to write about my little break much because there really hasn't been much to write about.

It turns out that not working for a month has been really good for Debbie and the kids. I am getting to spend a lot of time with them. I think Seth is really enjoying it. I think it will be hard for him when I go back to work. Maybe not, though. He is incredibly resilient.

We have had a couple of beautiful fall days. I hope they hang on for a while. That is one of the nice things about this area, we generally get a long autumn.

A visit to Glen Echo

2007-09-02T15:14:00.001-05:00

Glen Echo September 1 2007

Cutting Shrubbery (again)

2007-07-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I cut an arbor vitae tree next to my garage. It was infested with bag worms, which were interesting, but deadly. They ate almost half of the bush. I wasn't too worried about cutting this plant because it really was not in a very good place to begin with.

Dad came over to lend me his mattock, which is better than mine, for digging out the stump and to give moral support.

We actually have beautiful weather today. It is sunny and 85 degrees with low humidity. Kind of a perfect day.

Drivin' the RV with Nana

2007-06-27T20:58:00.000-05:00

The Kids

2007-06-27T20:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the kids from last Sunday

Sara Sleeps Well

2007-06-26T08:12:00.000-05:00

Sara is sleeping very well. In fact, she has almost from the beginning. What I mean by "sleeps well" is that she typically falls asleep about 8:30 in the evening, sleeps until 2 or 2:30 am, eats, and then goes back to sleep until 5:30 or 6 am. That's pretty good for a newborn.

Seth, as I recall, was up every two hours for about six months.

I think part of the difference is that Debbie and I were listening for every little noise that Seth made when he was sleeping. We called it re-binkying. He would fuss a little then we would crawl out of bed and pop the binky back in. With Sara we have been allowing her to go back to sleep on her own when she is not needing to be fed. That has worked fairly well for her and I think she sleeps longer at night because of it. Also, Sara is much less reliant on the binky than Seth was. In fact, most of the time she doesn't want it and spits it out almost instantly, or cries in a "get that thing out of my face" way. We're good with that.

Father's Day

2007-06-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a good Father's Day so far. The kids are napping now. I went over to M+D's to get some day lilies and then I fixed a broken phone jack.

Debbie made spinach quiche for breakfast. It was very good. Tonight we go back over to the parents for dinner.

Family Dinner

2007-06-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

Cresses headed off on their next cross country adventure yesterday. They set out in the RV about 9:30 am and will do a lot of touring as they work their way home.

We sat down to dinner last night, just the four of us, and it occurred to me that this was the first time we have had dinner with our little family. It was good.

Travel and whatnot

2007-06-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wait.. is "whatnot" actually a word? I wrote that title without thinking much about it. I was just going to do a quick post about my trips to Raleigh and Seattle. Then I got to thinking and whatnot (there it is again) and was wondering if was actually a word. Maybe it's just filler like yada yada, or blah blah or aaaanyway (which I really think means I'm sick of talking about this, but I don't know how to stop)

We spend a lot of time stuffing our writing and conversation with things like that. It gives us structure, and filler when we think too slowly, and clues to where the conversation might go and a way to include all of the stuff we want to say without really saying it.

I also notice that I pick up crutches every now and then. Word patterns that I use, but I'm not sure why.

EXAMPLES:

"The upshot of that is..." Huh? Explain what that means
"To be completely honest...: As if I was not being completely honest before
"In general..." especially useful for highlighting something specific

I'm sure I'll think of more after I post this.

Aaanyway, leave a comment with other crutches that you know, or use, or whatnot.

Seth holding Sara for the first time

2007-05-29T19:45:00.000-05:00

Seth holding Sara for the first time

Finally, a picture!

2007-05-27T15:05:00.000-05:00

Here is Sara in the hospital. 1 Day old.

All Night Long

2007-05-23T09:21:00.000-05:00

Sara was wide awake a good bit of last night. Or at least it seemed like it. She didn't really fuss much, she was just awake. For about Three hours. After Debbie fed her and held her and walked her for a long time I took over and did the same, except for the feeding part. In the end Debbie fed her again and she went to sleep about 4:30 or so.

Most of the time that I had her she was wide awake and gazing around. I can't say that she was actually looking at things because I'm not sure how far see can see, but she appeared to be watching out the living room window for a while. I did some laps around the kitchen/living room/dining room, sat on the couch, up the stairs, changed the diaper; the whole routine. Still, she stayed wide awake.

If she had been crying the whole time it would have been really hard, but because she was content to just hang out it wasn't all that bad.

One week old

2007-05-18T08:02:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Sara was one week old. I decided to look back at what I wrote when Seth was a week old just to compare my thoughts and they are remarkably the same. I have been back to work a little longer, but this is my first day to be in Silver Spring. I couldn't work at home then like I can now.

We constantly try to compare Seth and Sara. I suppose that is because it Seth is our only frame of reference for what Sara is doing. We think we remember what Seth was like at this age, but all I really remember is how happy we were to have him. We feel the same way about Sara. I suppose they are fairly comparable as newborns. What is most remarkable is that Seth went from being really small to comparatively big overnight.

The most noticeable thing is that Seth talks, which we have kind of gotten used to, and Sara doesn't. I mean Seth really talks: Tells stories, expresses ideas, challenges us, asks questions, gives answers. Sara does not. Sara sleeps, grunts when she wants to eat, cries when she needs a new diaper, gazes around the room when she is awake. She is more and more alert every day which is interesting. You can actually see her vision getting better as she locks on to things that are farther from her.

Last evening I sat on the couch and read to Seth while holding Sara. I plan to do that a lot more.

Back to Work

2007-05-16T14:52:00.000-05:00

I am back to work today. Nothing caught fire while I was out, so things are running smoothly after a little email and voice mail catch-up.

Sara is doing very well. We took her for the first Doctor visit on Monday. The pediatrician said that she is a textbook example of what a healthy baby should look like. That is exactly what I like to hear.

Seth is doing very well with his new sister. so far we haven't had any real issues and I think he is going to adjust without any trouble. He went to the library with Nana today.

Mother's Day

2007-05-13T19:36:00.000-05:00

We had a big gathering for Mother's Day this year, what with new baby and all. The whole family was home along with Mrs. Young, Ted and Peggy. We spent the entire afternoon at Mom and Dad's. Seth went the whole day with no nap and was really good. No major melt downs. He went right to sleep when I put him to bed.

We are getting more comfortable with another baby in the house: finding the swing of things. It is still going to take a little more adjustment, but so far, so good.

Announcing!

2007-05-12T15:14:00.000-05:00

Sara Beth was born Thursday, May 10 at 11:59 pm. She was 9lbs 8oz and 21.5 inches long. All went well with the c-section and both Mom and Baby are doing fine. We brought them home from the hospital today. It was a good Mother's day present I think.

Seth was very excite to meet his sister. He climbed right into the car to get a closer look. Then he helped carry her into the house by holding the handle of the car seat with Dad.

The Big Day!

2007-05-10T07:28:00.000-05:00

Today is the big day. Debbie is puttering around gathering things up and getting ready to go. We will leave for the hospital in about an hour. I have the camera all ready.

Ted and Peggy are going to take Seth to Mom and Dad's for lunch. He will have his nap there and they will wait to hear from us. It is a lot different than last time when everybody sat in the hospital all day. I am getting excited and nervous.

It feels like we are setting out on another big adventure.

Into The Home Stretch

2007-05-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

We are really getting close to the time for the new baby to come. I will work tomorrow and then Thursday morning we go to the hospital. I am looking forward to it because I am ready to move on to the "we have a new baby" time from the "we are having a new baby" time. I am also ready for a few days off from work. That is kind of a nice by-product for me.

All is Ready

2007-05-04T19:39:00.000-05:00

The baby's room is painted. The house is generally cleaned up. Tomorrow morning I will mow the lawn. Debbie's parents arrive around noon.

Painting Progress

2007-04-28T19:02:00.000-05:00

I made good progress on the painting today. That sounds like I am painting a picture. The walls are done. Now all that is left is the trim which will be white. Tomorrow for that. Debbie is very relaxed about the whole thing.

Ted and Peggy are in Tennessee somewhere along the Tennessee river. They will be in in a week.

No Michaelangelo

2007-04-27T19:30:00.000-05:00

So, Michaelangelo, what did you do today? Oh, I painted a ceiling.

I got started on the baby's room this evening. The ceiling is done. Tomorrow I do the walls.

How to cut a tree

2007-04-27T12:27:00.000-05:00

I had a dead dogwood tree. Or at least one that was so far gone that it wasn't coming back. So, last evening at about 5:15 I decided to cut it down because the city brush pickup is on Friday morning and I thought if it were done we would not have a pile of sticks in front of the house for a whole week.

Dad got his chainsaw and we all piled in the car and headed to our house. We were supposed to have dinner at Mom and Dad's.

I moved Debbie's car and dad fired up the saw. A chainsaw makes quick work of a dogwood. In about 10 minutes we had a 5 foot tall stump. That is when my neighbor arrived. He's a helpful guy and asked if we wanted him to pull out the stump with his truck. In another 5 minutes he had a chain around it and pulled it out. Then he hauled out a bag of grass seed so that I could seed the spot where the tree was. We pile up the sticks and racked the ground and spread a little grass seed.

By 6:00 we were done and back at the parents house having dinner.

Screen Door Repairs

2007-04-24T07:28:00.000-05:00

Last week we had some very high winds, above 60 MPH, as a noreaster passed up the coast. The door on our screened porch had a broken latch, so the wind got hold of it and whipped it around. Originally I thought the hinge was bent, but Debbie looked at it a little more closely in the daylight and discovered that the problem was with the hydraulic door closer. It was badly bent.

In short, only $25 later we have a new latch and a new closer. I fixed it last evening. On to the next thing...

Staring the Home Stretch

2007-04-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't written too much about expecting a new baby. It is interesting how much more relaxed Debbie and I are the second time around. Also, much of the uncertainty that goes with new babies was settled early for us. We know that she will be a girl, and we know her birthday. The doctor recommended a scheduled c-section because Seth was born that way and she would rather not risk tearing the old scar tissue during a normal labor. And so we have everything lined up.

I have not yet begun to paint the baby's room. That will have to be done in short order because I am running out of time before Ted and Peggy arrive. It will not take too long. It is not a large room or a complicated paint job.

Here is the color Debbie picked:

By the way, for anyone who is reading this using a aggregator (like bloglines) I have added a countdown counter to mark the days remaining until the baby is born. But you have to come to the actual blog to see that. (I think that might apply to one of my 5 regular readers...)
:-)

Rainy Day

2007-04-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

It is a rainy Sunday. The kind of day where you stay inside and think about doing things. Whether you actually do any of them is questionable.

Ted and Peggy left on their cross country trip yesterday. They expect to arrive here on the 4th of May. Their day one goal was to reach Helena MT. That's about 500 miles and makes for a long day in the RV. They are going to try visiting some wildlife refuges, but may find them still closed for the season. Hopefully they won't have too much really cold weather.

I bought the paint for the baby's room yesterday. I will have to get to work on that.

Dying Easter Eggs - Last Week

2007-04-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

Dying easter eggs hasn't changed much.

2007

1968

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T19:36:00.000-05:00

We had a very good Easter Sunday. We were up early this morning and Seth had a good time with his Easter basket and hunting for eggs in the house. It was too cold to have an outdoor egg hunt. We met the parents and Joe for church and then spent the rest of the day at Mom and Dad's.

Seth really likes Jelly beans and M&M's. Actually anything sweet is ok with him.

Holy Saturday Snow

2007-04-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

We have a cold Easter in store. Last night we got a dusting of snow which was enough to cover the grass, but not enough to stick to the roads. Highs today were in the low 40's and the overnight lows are forecast to be in the mid 20's.

It is kind of unusual for this time of year. We had beautiful weather earlier in the week with temps in the 80's.

Easter will be at Mom and Dad's. Joe is coming from Baltimore, Maureen is in Peru and the Youngs are having Greek Easter in Hopewell.

A Weekend Away

2007-04-02T07:12:00.000-05:00

Over the pst weekend we took a little trip to North Carolina. My regular meeting was on Friday, so Debbie and Seth tagged along and we visited our friends in Durham for the weekend. We had a good trip. Seth is really a very good traveler. He is pretty flexible and tolerates the change well. He is also tolerant of long hours in the car without fussing.

Beth and will came to visit yesterday and are staying until tomorrow. Seth was really excited to see them last evening.

Road Trip

2007-03-11T19:34:00.000-05:00

On the spur of the moment yesterday we decided to head out to New Jersey to visit Beth, Lou and Will. On the way we picked up Joe in Baltimore. It was a good trip. I had a good time.

Coming home we dropped Joe at his house and then got stuck in cross-town traffic for the St. Patrick's day parade. That was a HUGE mess. It took an hour to get across Baltimore. Yuck

All is well on the home front. Mom and Dad come home from Egypt on Tuesday.

Working at home today

2007-03-08T09:04:00.000-05:00

Debbie has a doctor's appointment at 11 so I am working at home today. She has to visit the doctor every two weeks now so they can check on the progress with the baby. Normally she would have asked Mom to watch Seth, but since she's in Egypt, I'll be doing it.

To Raleigh Again

2007-03-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

I am off to Raleigh again to day; Return home tomorrow.

It doesn't make any sense to drive to my office in SS and then leave for Raleigh, so I am working at home this morning. It is interesting to work at home. I can hear Debbie and Seth talking upstairs, but I can't make out what they are saying. It's like when you are at the doctor's office waiting in the exam room and you can hear the doctor talking to the patient next door.

So far the new office is working well.

Saturday Morning

2007-03-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

It's a nice warm day here so far. Seth was out playing with the neighbor kids for a while. I think he was having fun. I think I will work on refinishinghis bed this afternoon. THat project has been on hold because it has been too cold to work in the garage, and I don't want to use paint stripper in the basement; too many fumes.

Debbie took a spill yesterday afternnon. She and the baby are both ok, but she peeled about half of her pinky fingernail off. It looks bad and she says it really hurts. There is not much to be done about it but to keep it covered and take tylenol. She's a tough cookie.

Back From Raleigh

2007-03-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

I had a quick trip to Raleigh yesterday and today. I am back home now. I have to go again next week.

Mom and Dad came over for dinner this evening. They are off to Egypt tomorrow. They are excited about it. I think it will be a great trip.

It's Snowy Here

2007-02-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

We are getting some snow this morning. Debbie and Seth wanted to go out to play for a while...

Yard Work

2007-02-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

Dad came over this afternoon and helped me prune the crepe myrtle. We gave it a pretty good haircut. Now it should be fairly easy to maintain. It will require some work every winter, but not much more than that. We also did some other minor pruning, but not much.

Seth is getting his bath now, and will go to bed after that.

We expect a little winter weather tomorrow.

11 Weeks to go

2007-02-21T09:34:00.000-05:00

There are only 11 weeks left to go until the new baby arrives. The time has passed so quickly. Debbie tells me every day how active the baby is. "She's kicking me here or there." Last night I think she (the baby) might have had the hiccups. You could actually see Debbie's tummy jumping.

We are starting to think of things like car seats and whether the bouncy seat will fit on the table like it did for Seth. Mostly we are just doing things the way we always do.

Changing Rooms

2007-02-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

This weekend we moved some furniture. It was the great room shuffle of 2007. My office furniture is now in the new office, the guest room is now in my previous office and the Crib and changing table are in the old guest room. New names according to Seth: Baby's room, Nana's room, and Dad's office. We are happy with all three.

New Office complete

2007-02-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

Victor decided to come and finish the floor today so the new office is done. It took four weeks. That's not bad.

Here are some photos:

Standing in the basement door looking across the room.

Same position, showing the shop door a little to the right

Looking back toward the basement door from the opposite corner

A little weather slows prgress

2007-02-15T08:15:00.000-05:00

We've had a little winter weather over the last few days. The TV weather folks had a good time projecting doom and gloom and dire consequences, but in the end we got about 2 inches of snow and ice. The major part of the storm passed to the north of us.

However, the little bit of precipitation was enough to keep Victor from showing up on Tuesday morning, when the roads were fine, and Wednesday, when they were somewhat icy. The upshot is that there is still about 6 feet of floor to be installed before I can begin moving furniture into the finished office.

Hopefully he will make it today.

Progress on Basement

2007-02-10T10:22:00.000-05:00

The basement is nearly finished. Only the floor remains to be installed. We are putting down a laminate floor that should be fairly durable. Victor is going to deliver the materials today and will install the floor Monday and Tuesday.

I am happy with the progress. We got all of the boxes back on the storage shelves yesterday.

Here are some early construction photos.

The Big Boy Bed

2007-02-03T14:25:00.000-05:00

Here is Seth in his new bed! He slept in it for the first time last night. Right now the mattress and box spring are sitting on the floor until I am done refinishing the bed frame.

Office Progress

2007-01-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

The basement office project is moving along nicely. Victor has all of the framing, electrical and plumbing completed and the drywall is partially done. I have run the low voltage cables for phone TV and computer. I don't plan to have a TV down there; but some day, maybe.

I suspect Victor will finish hanging drywall today and may even get it "mudded" to dry over the weekend. That would make sense to me.

Now Debbie and I have to choose some cabinets, counter top and paint. That shouldn't be too hard.

New Baby Picture

2007-01-20T19:59:00.000-05:00

Here is one of the latest sonogram pictures we have of the new baby. The doctor tells us that she has long arms and legs and appears to be about a week ahead, size wise, of her due date. Right now she is in the 83rd percentile for babies at this stage of development. I suppose she gets that from her mother!

A new office

2007-01-17T08:26:00.000-05:00

We finally decided to start work on the new office in the basement. The contractor delivered some materials yesterday and is starting work today. I expect it to go relatively quickly. The plan is to set up the current guest room for the baby, move the guest room to my office and my office to the new room in the basement. There will be a workshop and storage down there as well.

Seth Making Candy

2007-01-02T19:51:00.000-05:00

I should have had this up before Christmas because it is a picture of Seth helping to make the fudge. Than spoon looks like it is half his height!

Lost Bags

2007-01-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

I made it home from Washington State last night, but my bags didn't. Now, according to United's web site, the are en-route to a hotel in Minneapolis. Don't ask me why...

7:46 - After hanging on hold for a while it appears that my bags will be delivered between 6pm, which is past, and 2am tomorrow. The online display was apparently a bug, because after I refreshed it a couple of times it came up with my address. Hmmm, that instills confidience in their system. Hopefully the paper trail will work.

Christmas is Coming, the goose is geting fat

2006-12-21T10:19:00.000-05:00

We are mostly through this years Christmas Goodies production run. So far we have made two batches of hard candy, toffee fudge, regular fudge, peanut butter cookies and Debbie is working on some chocolate cookies today. We still have to do the peanut butter balls. Oh, I forgot the Russian tea cakes.

I am beginning to feel the Holiday spirit and am looking forward to a week of family, food and fun.

Baby News

2006-12-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official, our new baby will be a little girl. We got the results from the amniocentesis, which were all normal, and part of those results is that they can clearly determine the sex of the baby.

What do we do with all of the boy stuff that we have?

Everyone is happy about it. We told Seth that a new baby will be coming to live with us, and he did not seem to mind at all.

Dad and Seth

2006-12-12T19:57:00.000-05:00

Seth and I had a nice evening. Debbie has gone out with a friend to do a little christmas shopping so the two of us spent the evening together. As usual, he was really good. Ate all of his dinner, no fussing.

Then we played for a little while and then read some books and played some more. Now he is in bed resting peacefully.

First Christmas Decorations

2006-12-02T19:35:00.000-05:00

Here are the first Christmas Decorations in the new house. Happy Holidays!
(click the picture to enlarge it)

Maternity

2006-12-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

Debbie has started switching over to maternity clothes. She decided last week that her regular pants were just too tight. I am beginning to realize a little more that the baby is on the way. I think it is just more obvious than it was before.

I also have a little planning to do. It looks like I am going to have to give up my office so that it can become a guest room when the current guest room becomes the new baby's room. Got that? I am starting to think about finishing the basement so that I can have an office/library down there and also a work room and storage area. Maybe I'll build in a wine cellar too while I'm at it...

Antikythera Mechanism

2006-11-30T08:33:00.000-05:00

The Antikythera Mechanism was discovered in 1900. It appears to have been an ancient computer that was used to calculate the position of astronomical objects. It has been dated to around 150-100 BC. It was so technologically advanced that nothing of comparable complexity appears for nearly 1000 years.

Here is an article from today's NY Times

Phone/DSL Saga

2006-11-29T08:32:00.000-05:00

Ever since we have moved into the new house I have been fiddling with the phone lines to try to get rid of some audible crackling. It was annoying to hear and I was suspicious that it was reducing the bandwith for my DSL because of having to resend garbled packets.

First I found some obviously bad connections that were cobbled together by somebody else, and then checked the wiring inside the jacks. I added a new punchblock to tidy up the 4 connections on the kitchen side of the house. I disconnected a tapped line that was connected to nothing. No real improvement.

Then I simplified things. I disconnected everything where it comes into the house. I cleaned up the incoming wire ends with a little sandpaper. They were a little dirty after 40 years. Then I hooked up a jack directly to the incoming line. No Static. That meant that my problem was inside the house and not outside. Now I have bypassed the old punchblock and hooked up only the extensions that are absolutely necessary directly to the incoming line.

My bandwidth went from about 250 kbps to about 1,450 kbps. Major improvement. Very little cost.

A good, long, weekend

2006-11-27T14:41:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a very good, long, weekend. Thanksgiving day itself was thoroughly enjoyable. Debbie made a very good dinner, complete with turkey and all of the necessary accompaniments. Later in the day Dad helped me redo the gas fireplace. It was not installed correctly. We moved it forward about 5 or six inches and dressed it up with some nice glowing embers and some small black gravel to give it a finished look.

I put up the outside Christmas decorations on Friday and Saturday while Debbie worked on the inside ones. Things are pretty festive now with two Christmas trees and a nice warm fire.

In the middle of all of that we got to see Maureen and Joe a couple of times at the parents house.

Christmas Dishes

2006-11-21T07:54:00.000-05:00

When I got home yesterday the Christmas dishes were int he cupboards. It seems that the holiday season has begun. Although it seems like the fall is flying by, I am ready for Thanksgiving. It will be a quiet one this year. Just five of us. Mom, Dad, Debbie, Seth and me.

That is a lot different than when I was a kid and we had dinners with 25 or 30 people.

Girls Night Out

2006-11-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

Debbie has gone out to dinner this evening so Seth and I are at home. I had to fiddle with the computer a little. Looks like some secondary hard disk trouble, but I have things up and running now.

I put Seth to bed at his usual time and he is asleep now, although I just heard him make some little sounds.

Putting Seth to Bed

2006-11-17T19:58:00.000-05:00

Debbie is putting Seth to bed this evening. Usually that is my job, but, for some reason, not tonight.

It is good to be at home on a quiet Friday evening with nothing planned for tomorrow. I will end up doing something around the house I am sure, but for now it is good to just be here.

Water Filters, Plumbing and Such

2006-11-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

When you are a homeowner you get to do "projects." Usually these projects are fun, sometimes they are frustrating, often they are puzzling, and many times one project leads to (or creates) another. Yesterday I decided to change the water filter for the kitchen sink and ice maker.

Sometimes our water can smell a little fishy, as in "it smells like fish." This is because of algae, I think, and although it is smelly it is not harmful. This only happens now and then. I suspect that it is some sort of algae bloom.

Our new house, conveniently, has an in-line water filter that cleans the water for the kitchen, and removes the fishy smell. However, according to the previous homeowner, he had never changed the filter in the three years that he lived there. Hmm. That's probably not good.

I have made several half hearted attempts to loosen the filter housing since we have lived there, but until yesterday I was not successful I was afraid I would break the plastic tank that holds the filter. What I actually succeeded in breaking yesterday was a soldered joint in the water pipe.

This required a call for help. Dad came over and brought his solder and flux and we set to work. First of all we had to get that filter off. So what does Dad do? He grabs that plastic tank that I was so concerned about breaking, gives it a huge twist, and off it comes. He made it look easy.

Then we sweated the broken joint apart with the torch, cleaned it up and soldered it back together better than it was in the first place. In went the new filter and we were good to go.

We only own one house now

2006-11-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

The settlement for the Silver Spring house is finally completed. Debbie and I went out to dinner last evening to celebrate. I am really glad to have both houses sold before the holiday season. I was getting a little worried that we might be stuck with the last one until the spring.

According to the real estate agent, there were about 50 houses on the market in our area in October and only three were sold. I'm glad it is done.

On to the next thing...

Halloween Pictures

2006-11-01T10:03:00.000-05:00

Seth had a good time with Halloween, I think. He was an alligator. (Debbie borrowed a costume from our friends arund the corner)

Dad posted his halloween pictures on his blog today. Here is the link to them.
http://reinsel.blogspot.com/

The house in Silver Spring is sold. The settlement was last evening. It was scheduled for 4:30, the bank sent the papers over at about 5 and we sat down to sign them about 6:30. BLARGHHH! Oh well, it's done.

Settlement (Redux)

2006-10-31T09:18:00.000-05:00

The settlement on the Silver Spring house was delayed fro Friday until today at 4:30. It looks like everything is lined up, but you never know until it is done.

New Baby

2006-10-27T09:19:00.000-05:00

After making the first announcements to the immediate family I am now starting to think a little more about our new baby in the works. The due date is about May 10 so that still seems pretty far away. However, as of today, Debbie is in the second trimester, which means that we are already 1/3 of the way there, which is a little hard to believe.

Beth asked me yesterday if it was "Real" yet. Frankly, it's not too real to me yet.

Seth doesn't really have any grasp of this yet. We have not talked to him specifically about it and I don't think he would understand anyway. It is such a long way off. He doesn't have a concept of "tomorrow" yet much less "May."

Speaking of Seth, he had his two year doctor visit yesterday. Everything is fine. He is 33 1/2 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds.

Settlement

2006-10-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

Settlement for the Silver Spring house has been scheduled for Friday. It looks like everything is going as it should so, unless something really unexpected happens, I should own only one house as of Friday afternoon. That will be a good thing!

Seth's Cake

2006-10-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

Seth's 2 Year Birthday Cake

2006-10-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

New Contract

2006-10-13T07:47:00.000-05:00

We got another contract on the house yesterday. Now if we can just get this one to settlement...

Happy Birhtday Seth

2006-10-12T07:05:00.000-05:00

Today is Seth's 2nd birthday! Last night when I was putting him to bed I told him a story about the day he was born. He was sitting in my lap listening and when I finished the story he turned around and gave me a big hug.

This evening we will have a small celebration at Mom and Dad's for dinner and on Saturday we will have a little party.

No Contract

2006-10-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

The contract on the Silver Spring house fell through. Apparently there were two bothers involved in the purchase and they had some kind of a disagreement so they cancelled the contract. It's frustrating, but there is nothing I can do about it except encourage the real estate agent to find another buyer.